Unnao Dalit girls

Weeks After Unnao, Body of Minor Dalit Girl Found in Aligarh Field

Police said prima facie it appeared that she was strangled.

New Delhi: The body of a 16-year-old Dalit girl was found in a field in the Akrabad area in Aligarh,with police saying that prima facie, it appears that she was strangled.

The incident comes just weeks after the bodies of three minor Dalit girls were found in a field in Unnao district of the state.

According to PTI, the 16-year-old girl had gone to the fields on Sunday afternoon to collect fodder for cattle but did not return. Later, her body was found in a field when her family members started searching for her, they said

Police said prima facie it appeared that she was strangled.

“The victim had gone out to get grass for fodder. The family and villagers began looking for her when she didn’t return home even after a few hours. Later they found her body in a field,” Muniraj G., the Aligarh senior superintendent of police, told NDTV.

As the news of he death spread, irate villagers pelted stones at a police party which was trying to take the body for post-mortem, they said. An inspector was injured in the attack, police added.

SSP Muniraj revealed that late on Sunday, senior police officials rushed to the spot and pacified the villagers, who then handed over the body to policemen.

He said allegations that the victim was sexually assaulted are being probed. “Everything will be clear when the post-mortem report is received,” the SP told news agency PTI.

In the Unnao case, three minor Dalit girls were found in a field. They too had gone to collect fodder, but were allegedly poisoned by a man whose advances one of the girls had rejected. While the two younger girls died, the third survived. Two persons, including a minor, have been arrested in that case.

Unnao Survivor’s Statement Says She Was Poisoned, No Sexual Assault Attempt: Police

The police have arrested two persons, a minor and a 28-year-old, who allegedly mixed poison in water and offered it to the three minor girls.

New Delhi: The 17-year-old girl who had survived an alleged attempt on her life at a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district said in her statement recorded before a magistrate on Tuesday that she was poisoned and denied there was any attempt to sexually assault her.

The girl was found in an agriculture field along with two others, who were her cousins and were also minors, aged 16 and 13. They were found unconscious in an agriculture field in Babuhara village of the Asoha police station area last Wednesday.

They had left home to collect fodder for cattle but did not return. On finding them there, the locals rushed them to a hospital, where the younger girls were declared brought dead. The 17-year-old was later taken to a Kanpur hospital, where she is undergoing treatment.

The UP Police have arrested two people in the case, a 28-year-old and a minor. The 28-year-old, Vinay, apparently poisoned the girl after she rejected his advances.

According to news agency PTI, superintendent of police (Unnao) Anand Kulkarni said the girl’s statement was recorded on Tuesday morning. He said the girl in her statement stated that Vinay and his friend had come to the field on the day of the incident. At that time, she and the two other girls were collecting fodder for cattle.

Vinay offered some snacks, which the girls refused. After this, Vinay gave them water. When they drank it, they fell unconscious, the girl’s statement says, according to the police.

Kulkarni said the girl’s statement says the accused did not attempt to sexually assault her. According to police, the accused gave some pesticide mixed with water to the three girls.

The accused and the victims all belong to the Scheduled Caste community.

According to the Indian Express, Kulkarni said, “On Monday, she gave her statement to an executive magistrate. On Tuesday, she recorded her statement to the police and the chief judicial magistrate.”

He also said that the lab report identified the poison as sulfosulfuron, a herbicide. “This poison is almost odourless, which could be the reason why the girls did not realise they were drinking poison,” the SP said, according to the newspaper.

Kulkarni also said that the water supply in the village is “high on sulphur content”. This could also be a reason why the girls drank water without realising it was poisoned, he said.

On Sunday, the Unnao police said that an FIR had been registered against eight Twitter handles – including @themojostory, a YouTube channel run by Barkha Dutt – for posting “fake, misleading information which caused anger among common people”.

(With PTI inputs)

Unnao: Two Dalit Girls Buried in Village Under Heavy Security

The bodies were brought to their village after a post-mortem was done on Thursday but the last rites could not be performed on the day, police said.

Unnao, Uttar Pradesh: The last rites of two teenage girls, found dead in an agriculture field in Babuhara village of Asoha police station area, were performed here on Friday morning amid tight security arrangements.

Three girls – aged 16, 15 and 14 – were found in a field by the villagers on Wednesday night when they did not return after leaving their house to take fodder for cattle.

The local residents had rushed the teenagers, who are all related to each other, to a hospital where two of them were declared brought dead.

The 16-year-old girl was rushed to a district hospital and later referred to a Kanpur healthcare facility where she is presently undergoing treatment, police said.

On Friday morning, the bodies of the other two girls were buried in their agriculture fields in the presence of senior officials and police personnel in large numbers.

The bodies were brought to their village after a post-mortem was done on Thursday but the last rites could not be performed on the day, police said.

Also read: Unnao Deaths: UP Police Says No Evidence of Sexual Assault, Autopsy Inconclusive

The district unit president of BJP Raj Kishore Rawat and local MLA Anil Singh were present during the funeral.

The district administration had made elaborate arrangements with heavy deployment of security personnel and barricades being installed covering about one kilometre on the four paths reaching the village with a magistrate-level official posted at every barricade to check people. Personnel from six police stations were also deployed for cover.

Director General of Police Hitesh Chandra Awasthi had said on Thursday, “The post-mortem of the two girls was done by a panel of doctors and no injury before death or external injuries were found on their bodies.The cause of death could not be ascertained and viscera has been preserved for chemical analysis.”

“We are taking help of forensic experts and looking into all possibilities,” the DGP had said.

A medical bulletin by the Kanpur hospital treating the third girl had noted that it was a suspected case of poisoning.

Apart from Section 302 (murder), the FIR also lists Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code, related to causing disappearance of evidence. The case mentioning the two sections was lodged on the basis of the family’s complaint, the police had stated.

Unnao Deaths: UP Police Says No Evidence of Sexual Assault, Autopsy Inconclusive

Police suspect poisoning to have caused the deaths of the two girls. The condition of the third girl is “still critical, but stable”.

New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday said that the postmortem report in the Unnao case had not found any injuries on the two deceased girls’ bodies and was inconclusive about the cause of the death, the Indian Express has reported.

The police added that there is no evidence to suggest that it was a sexual assault, but all angles, including “honour killing” and suicide, are being investigated.

On Wednesday, two Dalit girls, aged 13 and 16, were found dead while another 17-year-old was found critical in the fields of Babuhara village in Asoha located in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh. The third girl is currently at a Kanpur health facility on ventilator support and is being treated for suspected poisoning.

As the cause of death of two girls is yet to be ascertained, Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP), Hitesh Chandra Awasthi, according to PTI, said, ” The post-mortem of the two girls was done by a panel of doctors and no injury before death or external injuries were found on their bodies. The cause of death could not be ascertained and viscera has been preserved for chemical analysis. We are taking the help of forensic experts and looking into all possibilities.”

Meanwhile, the police on Thursday registered a first information report (FIR) on unidentified persons, and charged with Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) based on the family’s complaint.

Also read: Unnao: UP Police File FIR in Death of Two Dalit Girls, Third Girl Still Critical

Six police teams have been constituted by the state police to probe into the matter, and the Uttar Pradesh Human Rights Commission has sought a report from the police on the matter within two weeks, PTI has reported.

On Wednesday, February 17, the three girls in question, who were cousins, were found by the family members lying in the wheat fields helpless in the evening around 7 pm. According to family members, the girls had gone out to collect fodder, as they do regularly, but did not return home in the evening, prompting them to go searching for them.

Upon finding them lying on the ground, the family members carried the girls hurriedly and moved them to a local hospital. A local who spotted them informed the police about the incident. The families are daily wage labourers and own less than one bigha of land in the village, dominated by Brahmins, and Dalits form part of a small community, according to the Indian Express.

Unnao district superintendent of police (SP), Sureshrao A Kulkarni, said there was a contradiction in the versions of the incident presented by various family members. He added that while the girls’ brother had said that they were tied up with a stole, one of the girls’ mother had said her daughter’s stole was around her neck, just as usual, according to PTI.

According to Indian Express, Kulkarni said that if “the girls were tied up, some injuries would have shown in the post-mortem”. “Our investigation has found that bodies had no marks on them either in the hands or legs, suggesting that they were not tied,” he was quoted as saying by PTI.

The Indian Express quoted another senior police officer, who is part of the investigation, as saying that “post-mortem had ruled out sexual assault or strangulation and found no injuries to the body or any organ”. Instead, he said “a pungent-smelling substance was found in the stomach of the two girls… Doctors suspect it could be a poisonous substance”. “The family is not giving us clear information,” he added.

Locals stage a protest after bodies of two minor Dalit girls were found in a field and another in critical condition on Wednesday evening, near Baburaha village in Unnao district, Thursday, February 18, 2021. Photo: PTI.

The records available with the community health centre (CHC), where the families first rushed to, state that while the two girls were brought dead, the other was in a “gasping condition”. “The records say that the one who survived was foaming from the mouth and was gasping. No injury was found on her,” the Indian Express quoted a doctor as saying.

The health bulletin released by the hospital said that the condition of the 17-year-old girl was still “critical, but stable”. Inspector general (Lucknow Range) Laxmi Singh said they were hopeful that she would recover and shed light on what had happened.

Meanwhile, Laxmi Singh clarified that the police did not detain anyone from the family as is being claimed by the mother of the 16-year-old. He told Indian Express that they needed a family member during the postmortem to be present.

Political uproar

The issue has once again put a spotlight on the Uttar Pradesh government, with opposition leaders slamming the Yogi Adityanath government for failing to ensure the security of women, in the wake of rising crime against them.

Taking to Twitter, Rahul Gandhi said, “The UP government is not only crushing Dalit society, but also the honour and human rights of women. But they should remember that I and the entire Congress party will stand as the voice of victims and will endeavour to get them justice.”

He also used the hashtag “Save_Unnao_Ki_Beti” (daughter of Unnao) in his tweet.

Priyanka Gandhi demanded that the third girl be shifted to Delhi for better medical treatment and asked why her family had been detained.

In a Facebook post, she said: “The Unnao incident is heart-wrenching. Hearing out the family and providing immediate medical help to the third victim is very important for investigation and justice.”

Also read: UP Police Now Claims Hathras Victim Wasn’t Raped, Matter ‘Twisted’ to ‘Stir Caste Tension’

BSP chief Mayawati expressed condolences to the affected family, describing the incident as “very serious and sad”.

“The BSP demands a high-level inquiry into the incident and strict punishment for the culprits,” she tweeted.

Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav described it as shocking and a “shame on humanity”, and demanded strict punishment for the culprits.

“It seems that the chief minister did not care about law and order in the state. The state has become insecure for women due to the BJP,” he said in a statement.

He said the Adityanath government had “failed” to check the atrocities on women.

“The BJP government does not have any policy for women security. BJP ideology ignores women interests. UP has become ‘Hatya Pradesh’ (murder state) in the present regime,” Yadav added.

Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad demanded that a post-mortem be conducted by a medical board of AIIMS Delhi and the third girl be shifted there for treatment.

A Samajwadi Party spokesperson said a delegation would visit Unnao on Saturday to meet the family members of the victims.

Party MLC Sunil Singh Yadav, who is from Unnao, alleged that police are trying to hush up the case and sought a probe by an independent agency.

Meanwhile, Yogi Adityanath called the incident tragic, tweeting, “DGP, UP has been instructed to submit a report… It is being ensured that the girl gets the best treatment with no charges.”

(With PTI inputs)